Autumn 2013: Materiality

23 Oct, 10-12: Introduction and discussion of the theme of materiality – making a reading list/collection of works on the theme
What is materiality? What are the consequences of discourses around materiality (e.g., the so-called “material turn,” new materialism, etc.)? What could materiality be? How might it relate to our research and practice?summary of the talk

6 Nov, 10-12: Bo Reimer and Jonas Löwgren – “Collaborative Media” – Moderator: Mads Høbye, PhD Candidate
With many new forms of digital media — including such popular social media as Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr — the people formerly known as the audience no longer only consume but also produce and even design media. Jonas Löwgren and Bo Reimer term this phenomenon collaborative media, and in their new book they investigate the qualities and characteristics of these forms of media in terms of what they enable people to do. They do so through an interdisciplinary research approach that combines the social sciences and humanities traditions of empirical and theoretical work with practice-based, design-oriented interventions.

Löwgren and Reimer offer analysis and a series of illuminating case studies — examples of projects in collaborative media that range from small multidisciplinary research experiments to commercial projects used by millions of people. Löwgren and Reimer discuss the case studies at three levels of analysis: society and the role of collaborative media in societal change; institutions and the relationship of collaborative media with established media structures; and tribes, the nurturing of small communities within a large technical infrastructure. They conclude by advocating an interventionist turn within social analysis and media design.summary of the talk

20 Nov, 10-12: Linda Hilfling and Jacek Smolicki – Presentation by new K3 PhDs candidates of past and current research
Linda Hilfling, new PhD candidate in interaction design, and Jacek Smolicki, new PhD candidate in Media and Communications Studies (and working with the Living Archives research project) will introduce themselves and present their past and current research.summary of the talk

4 Dec, 10-12: Susan Kozel – “Somatic Materiailsm: some implications for archiving”
This seminar is based on current research in somatic materialism in the context of bodily archiving. In K3 somatics tends to be read through somaesthetics and performance through certain specific references to performativity and staging. I will expand the reading of somatics so that it includes somatic practices related to dance, and performance so that it takes in debates from the area of Performance Studies around mediation and disappearance. The idea is to lend a different twist both to materiality and to archiving. These thoughts are in their early stages so comments, critique and discussion are very welcome.summary of the talk

15 Jan, 10-12: David Cuartielles, Tony Olsson & Andreas Göransson – “The digital artisan”
The start of the industrial revolution forced the extinction of the skilled manual worker. This revolution of mass production also lead to a democratization of design. Goods and graphics entered the home giving everyone the chance to become a design connoisseur. The blend of design and technology created new categories of products emphasizing even more this divide between the dying ability of making and the ability to consume what is offered to us.

Today we are witnessing a new industrial revolution. This time it is rooted in the desire to re-gain control over our everyday products. This pushes design as a discipline looking into creating to cover individual needs.

In contrast to the master craftsman, the digital artisan is a jack of all trades and master of none. In order to design for the needs of the few, digital technology needed to be claimed as a design material. Scandinavia plays a major role in this transformative process with both theoreticians and practitioners experimenting in the field.

In this seminar David Cuartielles, Andreas Görannson and Tony Olsson will present the research from K3’s IOIO lab. Their work builds on top of open licensing models, hacker methodology and punk rock way of thinking applied to academic research (there is a lot of Gaffa in their work).

Cuartielles, Göransson and Olsson will defend the need for an understanding of technology in order to acquire knowledge about design materials. They will also make a reflection on how interaction design and art can influence the evolution of technology. If time allows, the conversation will be driven towards how to accommodate the educational needs of such a future scenario. Based on their experience running different innovative educational courses in technology and design, they will try to build upon the discourse against traditional learning systems as they do not support the design landscape of tomorrow.summary of the talk

12 Feb, 10-12: Ola Ståhl & Terje Östling (Publication Studio : Malmö) – “23.500t”
*please note this seminar will take place in the Medea space on the ground floor of Kranen)*
23,500t (Malmö: Publication Studio, 2013) is an artist book engaging with the interstitial space between architecture, materiality and gentrification. Drawing upon a substantial archive of photographs and texts, the concertina publication consists of a 12m long print documenting the Sheffield housing estate Park Hill – a massive, council-owned, Brutalist structure currently being privatised and therefore undergoing massive refurbishment. The image on one side of the print is a collage of photographs that together make up the entirety of the facade of the complex. The opposite side of the print contains a series of text collages weaving together descriptive text, archival material and references to architectural theory. The covers of the publication are cast in concrete, the same material used to construct the frame of the housing complex itself.

Ola Ståhl is a Senior Lecturer in the Theory and Cultural History of Art and Design at Linnaeus University. Formerly a lecturer at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, and one of the main instigators behind the UK-based parallel academy project Collective CREative Dissent, he remains interested in collaborative culture, in performative and experimental writing, and in editorial work, design and the material production of printed matter as a form of critical practice.

Terje Östling is an artist and photographer with a practice consisting primarily of collaborative work. He works out of the project space Ystadvägen 13. Alongside his own practice, he occasionally drifts into the fields of design and filmmaking, producing artworks and exhibition components for museums, artists and companies. Together Ståhl and Östling run Publication Studio Malmö.